Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme has said that he doesn’t want the Alberto Contador appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to drag on too long. He is worried that the case could continue past the start of the Tour de France, as CAS has already admitted is possible.
The Frenchman wants there to be a clear judgement on the matter in order to remove ambiguity. “What interests us is that there is an end point, an epilogue to this case” he told L’Equipe. “We're in a hurry to reach a final decision. CAS is the highest court in sports. We do not want an answer, but THE answer. We've already waited too long. I can not imagine that we will not have the answer before the Tour,” he said.
Prudhomme’s nightmare would presumably be that the rider starts the Tour, and is then sanctioned during the race and is forced to leave it. Or, even worse, that he could win another Tour, then subsequently be disqualified from two editions.
Contador has said that he is disappointed that the UCI has decided to appeal, but that he welcomes the chance to be judged at CAS. He claims that it will all remove doubts about his case.
He is currently competing in the Volta a Catalunya, and is leading the race with three stages to go.